Lagatar24 Desk
Kathua, J&K: In the aftermath of the Kathua terror attack, eyewitness accounts reveal that a civilian bus narrowly missed the ambush that targeted an army truck. On Tuesday, Puran Chand Sharma, who runs a shop near the site, recounted the events leading up to the attack.
“A civil bus passed the road 10 minutes before the attack. We heard a loud explosion and initially thought it was a tire burst. But the subsequent heavy firing made us realize that an encounter had started,” Sharma told PTI. He added that about 12 villagers were at his shop, and they took cover to avoid getting caught in the crossfire. The intense firing continued until 5 pm, followed by intermittent gunfire for another hour. Once it stopped, the villagers rushed to help evacuate the casualties.
The ambush occurred around 3:30 pm in Badnota village of Loi Malhar in Billawar tehsil, approximately 120 km from Kathua’s district headquarters. Vijay Kumar, another local resident, highlighted the unprecedented nature of the attack. “This is the first terror incident in our village since cross-border terrorism began in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s. We have not noticed any terrorist activity in our area, which has more than 100 families. The terrorists might have arrived on the bus that passed by shortly before the ambush,” Kumar stated.
The attack resulted in 10 soldiers being hit, with five succumbing to their injuries. The remaining soldiers are currently receiving medical treatment.
The search for the assailants, which was suspended late Monday due to heavy rain, resumed on Tuesday. Joint search teams comprising the Indian Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police, and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) launched operations from multiple directions, including Kathua, Udhampur, and Doda. Elite para-commandos, along with sniffer dogs, drones, and helicopters, were deployed to aid in the search and provide surveillance, officials reported.
